Chapter Text
Nick Wilde fell back on his ass, he had vertigo simply looking down at the clouds. The thought of falling down scared him, especially since he didn’t know how high up he really was.
To think there’d be something so majestic in a place so inaccessible.
What next?
Nick found himself truly out of his element, there was nothing to ground him in reality, not even the steampunk aesthetic of these rusty walls and metallic floor matched with the reality of Zootopia.
As he found himself completely baffled, his ears twitched and turned behind him, something was coming, slowly dragging across the metallic floor.
He spontaneously turned his head to look at what was coming, there wasn’t a single sound besides the light grating against two metallic surface.
A large metallic being with two wings on its side slid across the floor and a grating robotic voice resounded from what seemed like a snoot. “W-w-w-welcome, d-d-d-dear visitor!”
This thing was taller than even Bogo, it was incredibly massive and was sliding across the floor without even lifting its foot. Nick backed off, slightly scared of what this thing would do to him, its rusted metallic skin gave off an ancient aura, but still in line with this place.
It didn’t move from its place, it was completely immobile, figures if that was a whole bloc of steel, but how did it move and how was it able to see him and speak to him, was it even alive? This steel thing was creepy and that’s why Nick didn’t stop backing further away, far away from that thing.
When his hand slipped in the void, his body followed rather quickly, his reflexes weren’t what they used to, and so, despite wanting to grab onto anything, he instead simply clawed the rusty metal and fell down a long way.
If this metallic being wasn’t there to catch him, that would have been a long way down and probably in the ocean. “D-d-d-don’t be so hasty to leave! There’s p-p-p-plenty to enjoy in C-C-C-Columbia!”
It lifted Nick effortlessly, its long and slim metallic arm wasn’t attached to the main body after all, this was an intricate robotic structure seamlessly looking like a statue, what a fascinating thing. “Thanks for saving my butt there.”
The being folded its wing against its body. “There’s no need to thank me, d-d-d-dear visitor, I am only fulfilling my d-d-d-duty.”
Nick was confused, what was it. “Excuse me, what are you? Are you somehow alive to be able to interact with me and answer me?”
The large metallic owl answered while executing a zealous greeting. “G-g-g-glad you asked! I am p-p-p-prototype 2 W.I.N.D. W-W-W-Welcoming Instructor of Navigational D-D-D-Directions!”
Its mechanical voice, coupled with its movement and its stuttering, this thing was definitely not alive, but still, how was it able to interact so seamlessly with him?
Nick still didn’t feel that comfortable staying close to this steel behemoth, he felt like it could smack him and he’d be powerless to react. That’s when it grabbed him by his wrist, between its mechanical feather. “W-w-w-worry not, it’ll only take a m-m-m-moment!”
Nick clawed back, trying to free his paw stuck, but this behemoth looked at him with contempt its eyes red with anger.
With its other wing, it slapped a gauntlet onto Nick’s paw and freed him right after. “If you are to explore C-C-C-Columbia, it’d be best w-w-w-with this.”
Nick looked at the metallic gauntlet on his left arm, it was light as a feather but also solid as steel, what the hell was its composition? “Hey, what is this place!? You keep spouting stuff about Columbia, but you haven’t told me what it is!”
The figure got animated, spraying an hologram from its eyeballs, the megastructure he saw was multileveled on a large area. “As our first visitor in a thousand years, an explanation m-m-m-may be necessary. This is C-C-C-Columbia, the flying c-c-c-city in the sky. Floor zero is w-w-w-where visitors arrives.”
If this tall building found itself in the sky, he couldn’t fathom how they managed to stay in the sky for so long, a thousand years is a long time, but then, the light gauntlet on his wrist made him realize there was a lot of things he still didn’t understand. “Am I to climb to the top?”
The robotic assistant answered. “You can go anywhere you p-p-p-please, just m-m-m-make sure to avoid th—”
The abrupt way the robot stopped, did it run out of battery? Nick circled the steel behemoth, but it didn’t move, neither did the crank in its back. Was this thing a living clock? Would it work if he rewound it? He tried turning the crank, but nothing happened, it was dead. He didn’t know how to care for it, it was far too advanced and he had no knowledge of watchmaking, he couldn’t begin to start bringing it back to ‘life’ if he tried, but he didn’t need to, he ventured forth by the large door, it at least managed to prepare him a tiny little bit to what’s to come.
As soon as he stepped out of the room, he almost barreled down the city, for there was no floor. He regained his composure and looked up to see myriads of flying entity, they all flew to and from each walls of these tall buildings, entering by the floor, exiting by the ceiling. If he fell, he’d fall for a long time because nothing would be there to stop him, nothing…
He looked at his metallic claw, light as a feather, solid as steel. He grabbed the side of the wall with it, and with utmost surprise, it stuck to it! He could climb the hard surface with this thing, it’d just take some adapting to make sure to climb efficiently, mammals never evolved to walk on walls, so it was hard for him to climb with this singular claw, but it worked nonetheless, he’d get used to it.
There was a railway floating in the air, in between both walls, and it stretched far into the myriads of walls upstanding in this city. He jumped to it and, as he expected, his claw attached to it and started gliding upwards, from what mechanism was that possible? No way to know.
There was a lot of things he didn’t know, about this city, its citizens and their place in this world, in Zootopia. A lot he didn’t know about the physics, the mechanics, the logistics of it all, but he knew one thing clearer than before. His child was here, and he’d bring her back, no matter what.